1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device for displaying serially stacked products, and more particularly to a device which automatically advances the products to one end of the display by means of at least one divider member with a spring-loaded pusher plate movably attached thereto.
2. Description of the Related Art
Merchandising practice requires that retail products be displayed in a well organized manner, and that merchandise be readily accessible and attractively displayed to the consumer. It is desirable that products stacked on a shelf, be squarely aligned one behind the other, be oriented to face the consumer, be rotated to maintain freshness and be positioned so that the products are towards the front of the shelf. It is also desirable to display the products attractively thereby encouraging consumers to examine and purchase the merchandise.
In a typical wholesale or retail establishment serially stacked products are usually placed upon a shelf for display. Setting up and maintaining the display is usually done manually. The products must be carefully organized, rotated, stacked and aligned. The removal of merchandise by the consumer leaves a space at the front of the shelf with the remaining products towards the rear being difficult to view and access. Furthermore, the consumer is likely to move the products around so that the items are no longer neat and orderly but instead are haphazardly arranged, as a result of which many items no longer have the product name facing the front of the display. The merchandiser must continually inspect and rearrange the displayed products, which is time consuming and costly. It is therefore advantageous to have a display device which maintains stacked products in a neat and organized manner while automatically moving the merchandise toward the front as products are removed.
Although there is prior art teaching devices that automatically advance a stacked product, each has significant shortcomings. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,012,936 depicts a display device with a sliding tray or bin having a pusher plate biased toward the front by a flat coil spring. This device has a tray of fixed dimensions which is not adjustable to accommodate products of different sizes. The tray device also has a complex construction which makes it expensive to manufacture.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,729,481, teaches a device having a belt or a roll biased by a coiled spring. Although this device is adjustable, separate dividers are required resulting in additional parts and labor costs.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,300,693, teaches a device having a spring biased pusher plate mounted on a track. This device has the disadvantage of not being adjustable to accommodate differently sized products. Additionally, U.S. Pat. No. 3,308,961, teaches an adjustable display device which utilizes a spring biased pusher plate mounted to runners. This device does not have dividers and therefore the merchandise can be easily misaligned.